It looks like director Bryan Singer is rounding up some of the usual suspects to pen X-Men: Apocalypse, the presumed sequel to May 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past. A photograph that the often-tweeting director posted on the social media site last night shows Singer with Days of Future Past writer Simon Kinberg as well as X2: X-Men United scribes Mike Dougherty and Dan Harris. Dougherty is the writer/director of holiday cult favourite Trick ‘r Treat and its upcoming sequel, while Harris co-penned Superman Returns with Dougherty yet has not written a film since 2007.
Although the X2 scribes are not yet confirmed for the project, their appearance at what Singer tweeted was a “late night story session” indicates that they are helping out with at least the story for the film. At the end of the tweet, the director wrote that “it’s snowing in Egypt.” Since Egypt is Apocalypse’s birthplace in the original comics, that line could be an indicator of what lies ahead in the film, which is due out May 27, 2016.
Bryan Singer is definitely a friend of social media and knows how to build fan excitement for his upcoming projects. He loves to tweet from the set, announce the casting of new actors in his films through Twitter, and even forecast his fans to new projects in development from that website. Remember, X-Men: Apocalypse‘s arrival came via a tweet from the director, not a press release from the studio. In fact, Fox has not even spoken about X-Men: Apocalypse or mentioned its place in the franchise’s timeline yet. The only thing confirmed so far is its May 2016 release date.
It is strange that Singer is already so intensely involved in another X-Men film, when there is still likely lots of post-production to finish up on Days of Future Past. However, with Dougherty and Harris helping with the story process, perhaps he is just excited to get back together with past collaborators and figure things out before the Trick ‘r Treat sequel gets the former’s attention.
Tell us, are you excited for the potential return of the X2 screenwriters on X-Men: Apocalypse?
